Israeli’s punitive demolition of family homes belonging to Palestinians suspected of carrying out terror attacks on Israeli citizens amounts to a potential war crime, Human Rights Watch says, urging Tel Aviv not to take revenge on whole families.

“Israel should
impose an immediate moratorium on its policy of demolishing the
family homes of Palestinians suspected of carrying out attacks on
Israelis,” the human right groupsayson its website.

The group adds that the policy, “which Israeli officials
claim is a deterrent, deliberately and unlawfully punishes people
not accused of any wrongdoing."

“When carried out in occupied territory, including East
Jerusalem, it amounts to collective punishment, a war
crime."

According to Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and North Africa
director, “punitive home demolitions are blatantly
unlawful.”

“Israel should prosecute, convict, and punish criminals, not
carry out vengeful destruction that harms entire families,”
he adds.

HRW said there were at least five examples of how Tel Aviv
demolished or sealed the homes of Palestinians who were suspected
of killing Israeli citizens, a move that left dozens homeless.

On November 19, the Israeli army used explosives to destroy the
family home of a man who crashed a car into a light rail station
in Jerusalem in October, the rights group says. The attack killed
a 3-month-old baby girl, fatally wounded a woman and left at
least seven injured.

HRW also cited the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu who said that he had “ordered the demolition of the
homes” of two Arabs he called “human animals” who performed the
attack at a Jerusalem synagogue on November 18.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu should reject a policy of punitive
home demolitions,” Stork said. “It is a basic principle
of law that one person should not be punished for another’s
crime.”

Synagogue attack left five dead, including one UK and three US
rabbis, and a police officer. Both attackers were killed by
police.

The staff at Addameer, Palestinian Prisoner Support and Human
Rights Association, told HRW that Israeli soldiers arrested 10 of
the suspects’ relatives on November 18. The next day only eight
of them were released.

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been running
particularly high over the last two weeks and world leaders are
becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress in
Israeli-Palestinian relations.

On Friday, the mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, called on Israeli
authorities to revoke the citizenship of family members of
terrorists. He explained that Israel “must be extremely focused
[in our efforts] against evil people, to locate them and deal
with them firmly.”

Barkat’s proposal came a day after Itamar Shimoni, the mayor of
Ashkelon, near the Gaza Strip, said
he was planning to ban Arab workers from kindergartens.